More people in the U.S. are overdosing from cocaine, methamphetamine and prescription stimulants and there's no approved medication to help them get off the drugs. Amid public health warnings about rising stimulant use disorders, the Food and Drug Administration is urging drugmakers to develop treatments for cocaine and methamphetamine addiction.
The hope is that it will trigger a rush of clinical trial testing for drug treatments for stimulant use disorder, aiming to fill a major gap in the response to the overdose crisis in the U.S.
Although the FDA has never ruled it out, in draft guidance released last month, the agency expressed openness for the first time to trials for new treatments that reduce the use of cravings for illegal stimulants, rather than solely looking at complete drug abstinence, a move welcomed by addiction specialists.
Opioids, mostly fentanyl, continue to be the leading cause of death in the country’s ongoing drug overdose crisis. A growing number of fatalities, however, are linked to stimulants, whether in combination with opioids or on their own, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Although there are several drug treatment options such as methadone available for opioids, none have been developed for cocaine, methamphetamine or prescription stimulant addictions.
There's renewed urgency to help people with stimulant use disorders as drugs like cocaine and meth have become cheaper, easier to find and more potent. Now, the need for treatments has crashed headlong into a lack of funding and years of limited research that’s produced less-than-inspiring results, experts say.
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